KUWAIT has appointed its first female cabinet member, naming veteran women's rights activist Massouma al-Mubarak as planning minister, the state news agency KUNA said. Prime Minister Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah "announced the appointment of Dr Massouma Mubarak as planning minister and minister of state for administrative development affairs," KUNA reported. Mubarak, a columnist and political science professor at Kuwait University, said she had been offered the post, and said she was honoured to be the first woman minister in the Gulf Arab state's history. She replaces Sheikh Ahmad al-Abdullah al-Sabah in both posts.The appointment makes Kuwait the third country in the conservative Gulf Arab region to have a woman cabinet minister. Sheikh Ahmad retained his post as communications minister and was also given the health ministry portfolio, official sources said. Energy Minister Sheikh Ahmad al-Fahd al-Sabah had been interim health minister since Mohammad al-Jarallah resigned in April after parliament members called for a no-confidence vote, accusing him of squandering public funds and mismanagement. Kuwait appointed two women to its municipal council earlier this month, the first women appointed to the body.
Kuwait gave women the right to vote and run in elections last month, but passed the legislation too late for them to vote or stand for election in municipal polls on June 2. Women will vote for the first time in the 2007 parliamentary elections. The suffrage bill was seen as a breakthrough in Kuwait, which had promised to carry out democratic reforms.